, 1887-06-23
THE BUSINESS WORLD.
Some Suggestive Facts and Figures
Worthy Of Study.
Special COrr.SpOndenCe1

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New YORK, Nav o..
Financial and political authorities agree
that the depression which begun in 1881, fol
lowing the short lived boom" of lS.0-SO. and
endured so long, Is past, and that something
like a boom is at hand. But shrewd OBJ
servers cannot fail to see that this era of
activity will be totally unlike the last, and
still more unlike that season of feyerisl,
speculation which preceded the great panic
Of lN.-i. In fact, the conditions are so diff
fercnt from those prevailing in ~ and in 81
that no precedent can lie drawn. There is now
no large volume of irredcemaBle but local
tender paper, no failure Of the grain crops in
the Oh world, 10 great speculative enterprises
ai"ot aud no very unusual changes of purula-
ton. lhc average rate of interest is nrnh-
ably the lowest ever known. alike in the oII
world and the new; the cost of the uecas-
slri"S of life Is aS low rs this gcnerutiou has
ever known, If not lower, and the MARGIN of
profits III almost every line of legitimate busi
ness Is rs low aS at any time in .his century,
We arc Justified, therefore. in bclievinp TINT
the rise of prices will come on slowly and Lest
FOR some time; that TIE severe experiences of
the recent past will have their restraining ef
feet, "a consequently that tie activity will
bc confined chiefly to legitimate business fur
some years till prosperity produces its usual
effect i'll exciting speculation and the creation
OF fictitious values. After that-the crash.
The present situation is peculiar in many
respects Perhaps the most phenomenal fact
is the low rate of interest, that is to say. the
abundance of loanable capital, despite the
rapid increase in population and the volume
of business The cause is easily seen: modern
business methosls dispense with the Use of
money; produce pays for goods, and goods
for produce. In the crushing panic of 1851,
and the long era of depression which lasted
through Van Buren's and TyleriS adnimistra-
tions, the western farmers grain and meat
were months i'll reaching the consumer and
the manufactured articles rs long in reach
ing the west; at each transfer of values
money was paid. Now the western factor
loads railroad train with grain and files
the certificates of that shipment in his local
bank: telegram informs the New York
correspondent that the grain is on the way
the credit is made and the goods may be,
often are. shipped westward thereon before
the grain gets half way to the seaboard
Five dollars may lie the total cash payment
Tor the transfer of $4,000 worth of
wheat and return of an equivalent i'll goods
Thus a rapidly increasing volume of busi-
hess IS transacted on decreasing transfers of
cash; banking and tclegraphy dispense with
tie use of money, and there is an over
abundance OF cash for legitimate business be
- IS a surplus for speculation and new i'll
Ygstments.
Another very noteworthy feature is that
WAGES have been 50 well maintained In the
seven wears that the cost of living has de.
clinrd nearly ne-third, wages have certainly
not declined one-tenth, if ut all; and as the
Hon. Edward Atkinson has 50 ably
pointcd ont. the lab0rer has been seCur-
ing u constantly increasing share CT a
constantly increasing product. The result
has been to excite immigration on a scale
never before witnessed. Not since Goth. Hun
and Vamdal descended upon Rome has such Il
transfer Of population taken place as this
very wear sees. 1t is n serious question if this
European food t}jO, 900 laborers in 1887 at
present rates will not force n great collapse
in the American labor market. Another very
serious thing has happened: our foreign Gus
toners, especially England, are looking else
W here for grain and cotton. Our export of
the former has fallen off one half, and now
the latter is threatened. We We're helped out
of the panic of 1853 by a combination of
events which may never again occur There
were seven good wheat crops in this country
and seven poor ones i'll western Europe.
The result was that i'll nine Years we eN-
ported more wheat than i'll the previous
ninety The further result was the transfer
of 81 600. .UO1.OUO i'll values to American far
merS. with which they entered the market
and created the boom of iS19-SO. But now
the European demand Is less, and Egypt, In
dia, Australia and the Argentine Republic
supply lar more. j. Ii. BEADLE.